News outlets will ask judge to end Trump’s White House ban at hearing

WASHINGTON – News outlets CNN, MS NOW and Politico will ask a federal judge on Sept 23 to immediately restore their access to the White House after US President Donald Trump banned them in one of his most dramatic clashes with the media to date.

The outlets said the ban, which Trump announced on Sept 18 on his social media platform Truth Social, is an illegal attack on their right to free speech under the US Constitution and violates their rights to due process.

The three news organisations, he said, “shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they’re covering the President of the United States”.

In a legal filing on the eve of the hearing, the Trump administration argued that access to the White House was a privilege, not an entitlement, and so the president had the authority to suspend the organisations’ access.

Trump has accused the media of trying to hurt Republicans ahead of the November midterm elections, as his sagging popularity threatens the party’s chances of retaining control in both houses of Congress.

“This ban could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment nor a more blatant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles,” the outlets said in their lawsuit, filed on Sept 21.

In a show of solidarity, major US television networks on Sept 21 suspended their pooled coverage of Trump’s movements, upending a decades-long system that allows Americans to see their president’s public movements on TV.

With the press pool absent, Trump’s remarks on Sept 21 were inaudible during the White House’s live stream of a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new helipad.

At a 3.30pm local time hearing in Washington, US District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, will consider a request to immediately reinstate the outlets’ access to the White House while the litigation unfolds.

Trump’s effort to ban the three news organisations from the White House is on shaky legal ground, according to free speech experts, who said US courts have long held that the government cannot condition press access on favorable coverage once it has opened a space to the media.

In a 2018 case that raised similar legal issues, Kelly ordered the White House to restore CNN correspondent Jim Acosta’s press pass, which had been revoked after a contentious news conference with Trump.

Kelly ruled in that case that the White House had not used fair and clear procedures to revoke Acosta’s credential, calling the process “shrouded in mystery”.

In a social media post on the afternoon of Sept 21, Trump indicated regret over appointing Kelly to the bench in 2017, during his first term, and said he was bracing himself for a loss.

Although past presidents have battled with the press, Trump’s campaign against the media has been unprecedented.

He has upended decades of tradition by denying basic access to many major news organisations, launching personal attacks on journalists for their reporting, and elevating media outlets seen as more sympathetic to the administration.

He also has filed lawsuits against multiple news outlets, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the BBC. REUTERS